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Volition: $100 Million Dollar Games Are Killing The Industry

It’s no secret that with the continued proliferation of small-scale indie projects, longtime devs leaving to form their own small studios and the unimpeachable sales swords that innumerable larger scale projects have been pushed on to in the last few years that the old ways of triple-A publishing are in trouble.

Speaking to OXM UK, Volition’s Jim Boone recently said that things aren’t going to get any better if big-budget studios don’t stop gambling $100 million-plus on single triple-A projects.

“In my opinion gamers buy fewer games because of these $60 price points," Boone said, explaining the pricing model triple-A publishers use to justify and help recoup the costs of such expensive development ventures. "If I'm going to buy six games a year then I'm probably just going to buy six of those $200 million games and call it a day – I don't have to worry about anything else."

As the logic follows, it all comes down to price points – if both an $80 million game that’s flawed and $200 million dollar game that’s polished to a fine sheen come out around the same time, players are only going to pick up what gets more bang for your buck, said Boone, who served as senior producer on Saint’s Row IV.

While this argument is hardly new, it seems as though (and the OXM article doesn’t hurt) more and more developers are starting to realize that the current inflexible model is untenable, especially as more games are starting to be released digitally or otherwise sold for less based on the development costs.

One thing’s for sure – as the cost of next-gen development continues to skyrocket, something’s gotta give.